Grok (pronounced GROCK) is a verb from Robert A. Heinlein's science fiction novel, Stranger in a Strange Land (1961). In it, a Martian visits earth and brings his language from Mars. Grok means to understand, in an utterly complete and intuitive way. It's the Martian equivalent of to "get it", and the youth culture adopted this new word into the English language. The word is included in the American Heritage[2] and Merriam-Webster dictionaries. It is sometimes associated with hippies[1] and computer programmers[2]

In Heinlein's novel, a character asks another to explain the word: "You speak Martian... Do you grok 'grok?'" The other replies:

"No. 'Grok' is the most important word in the language—and I expect to spend years trying to understand it. But I don't expect to be successful.... Its literal meaning... is easy. 'Grok' means 'to drink....' 'Grok' means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed—to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience.... Jubal, if I chopped you up and made a stew, you and the stew, whatever was in it, would grok—and when I ate you, we would grok together and nothing would be lost and it would not matter which one of us did the eating."

References

↑Heinlein, Robert (1961), Stranger in a Strange Land, chapter XXL. p. 205-6 of the Berkley Medallion paperback edition, SBN 425-01756-7. Note: this is a very abbreviated extract from a much longer and more complicated presentation.

↑Edelstein, David (2004), "You're Entering a World of Lebowski, The New York Times, August 8, 2004, p. 21